| Plants vs. Zombies 2 | |
| Developer: | PopCap Games, TalkWeb Games (China) |
| Publisher: | Electronic Arts |
| Composer: | Laura Shigihara Peter McConnell |
| Series: | Plants vs. Zombies |
| Platforms: | iOS, Android |
| Released: | iOS August 15, 2013 Android October 23, 2013 |
| Genre: | Tower defense |
| Modes: | Single-player, multiplayer |
Plants vs. Zombies 2 (originally subtitled: It's About Time) is a 2013 free tower defense video game developed by PopCap Games and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to Plants vs. Zombies, and was released worldwide on Apple App Store on August 15, 2013, and Google Play on October 23, 2013. The player defends the lawn from zombies by placing a variety of plants. The player must battle the zombies in different time periods, including Ancient Egypt, the Golden Age of Piracy, the Wild West, the Last Ice Age, Mesoamerica, the future, the Early Middle Ages, the 1980s, the Jurassic Period, the 1960s and the present.
Plants vs. Zombies 2 is a free-to-play tower defense game where players defend the left side of the screen from hordes of zombies approaching from the right.[1] The player uses various plants with different abilities to combat these zombies.[2] Some plants attack zombies directly while others are designed to slow them down, allowing the player to attack them.[3] The game is set on a five-row grid, where the player places plants to prevent the zombies from reaching the end of each row.[1] Plants are purchased using "sun," a currency obtained by clicking sun icons that randomly drop from the sky or are produced by certain plants, like Sunflowers.[3] If a zombie breaches all lines of defense, a lawn mower—or other similar, relevant object—will activate and clear the row, but if the lawn mower has already been used, and another zombie crosses, the game is over.[1] Unlike its predecessor, Plants vs. Zombies, this installment introduces a time-travel theme. The player, alongside the character Crazy Dave and his sentient van Penny,[4] journeys through different historical periods, including Ancient Egypt, Pirate Seas, and the Wild West, among others.[5]
Each era introduces distinct plants,[4] such as the "Bonk Choy" and the "Coconut Cannon",[2] [6] and unique zombies, such as pharaoh-suited zombies that can steal sun in Ancient Egypt. The game also adds Plant Food, a power-up that temporarily boosts a plant's ability,[2] such as Peashooters firing powerful volleys of peas or Sunflowers producing a large amount of sun at once.[1] [5] Plant Food can be obtained by killing certain zombies or purchased with real money.[1]
In August 2012, PopCap announced that they were working on a sequel to their previous game, Plants vs. Zombies, and that it would include "new features, settings, and situations".[7] In a later announcement, the company confirmed that the new game would be released on July 18, 2013.[8] On June 26, 2013, PopCap announced on their Twitter page that the game would release later than previously announced. On July 9, the game was released in Australia and New Zealand on the iOS App Store[9] and came out worldwide on August 15, 2013.[10] The Android version was released worldwide on October 23, 2013.[11]
The game was first expected to launch on iOS on July 18, 2013. On June 26, it was announced that the game was delayed until later in the summer on the game's official Twitter account.[12] The game soft-launched in Australian and New Zealand App Stores on July 9 to test server capacity. It launched worldwide on iOS on August 15 and, in five days, topped the free app charts in 137 countries. On September 12, PopCap Games soft-launched the game for Android in China in Baidu AppSearch and announced that it would be coming to Google Play worldwide later in the year. On October 2, the game soft-launched on the Australian and New Zealand Google Play stores.[13]
The game received mostly positive feedback from users and critics, despite using in-app purchases. Critics mostly praised the gameplay and graphics. It has a Metacritic score of 86/100 based on 36 reviews. PopCap Games announced at Gamescom on August 20, 2013, that the game had been downloaded 15 million times, making it the most successful EA mobile game launch. Ten days later, it was announced that the game had been downloaded 25 million times, exceeding the lifetime downloads of the first game.[14] Apple chose Plants vs. Zombies 2 as a runner-up for the 2013 iPhone game of the year.[15] During the 17th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awarded Plants vs. Zombies 2 with both "Casual Game of the Year" and "Mobile Game of the Year".[16]